Hyundai-Kia dominates midsize, large car markets

The Market dominance of Hyundai and Kia among locally made vehicles is stronger than ever, especially when it comes to midsize and large cars.

Their combined market share has reached nearly 90 percent in those sectors, the companies said Tuesday.

In September, Hyundai and Kia vehicles made up 89.2 percent of midsize and large cars sold by five Korea-based carmakers, which also include Renault Samsung, GM Korea and Ssangyong.

The figure was a 4 percentage point increase from 85.2 percent in August.

Renault Samsung, the Korean unit of the French auto company, saw its market share decline from 9 percent to 6.5 percent in September, while the figure for GM Korea also decreased from 4.7 percent to 3.2 percent.

In the large car segment, Hyundai’s flagship sedan Grandeur sold 7,086 units in September, followed by Hyundai’s luxury sedan Genesis, Kia’s K7 and K9 sedans, and Hyundai’s Equus.

Hyundai’s YF Sonata continued its market dominance in the midsize class, selling 10,820 units during the same period. Kia’s K5 came in second with 5,731, followed by Renault Samsung’s SM5, Hyundai’s i40 and GM Korea’s Malibu.

In the nine months of this year, the nation’s market for midsize and large cars, excluding that of import brands, saw a sharp decline of 13.9 percent from a year ago. The sales decreased from 340,232 to 295,091 this year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)